TY - JOUR
T1 - The intergenerational effects of a large wealth shock
T2 - White southerners after the civil war
AU - Ager, Philipp
AU - Boustan, Leah
AU - Eriksson, Katherine
N1 - Funding Information:
NBER Cohort Studies, Economic History Association, Australian National University, All-UC Economic History, UC Merced, UC San Diego, Princeton, New York University, Ohio State, Boston University, Pittsburgh, Columbia, George Washington, Chicago Booth, NBER Development of the American Economy, Maryland, UVA, Rutgers, CUNY, Yale Law School, Parthenope University of Naples, and CSEF Naples. We benefited tremendously from the comments of Eli Berman, Marianne Bertrand, Sandra Black, Hoyt Bleakley, Michael Bordo, Bruno Caprettini, Mario Carillo, Bill Collins, Dora Costa, Janet Currie, James Feigenbaum, James Fenske, Joseph Ferrie, Walker Hanlon, Judy Hellerstein, Rick Hornbeck, Melissa Kearney, Wojciech Kopczuk, Ilyana Kuziemko, John Landon-Lane, David Lagakos, Trevon Logan, Robert Margo, Atif Mian, Suresh Naidu, Giacomo Ponzetto, Nolan Pope, Paul Rhode, Harvey Rosen, Allison Shertzer, Randy Walsh, Owen Zidar, and the late Werner Troesken. James Feigenbaum, Andrew Hall, Connor Huff, Matt Jaremski, Shiro Kuriwaki, and Suresh Naidu generously shared data with us for the project. Myera Rashid and Brian Lee provided excellent research assistance. Philipp Ager gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Danish Research Council grant DFF-8019-00026B.
Funding Information:
*Ager: University of Mannheim and CEPR (email: philipp.ager@uni-mannheim.de); Boustan: Princeton University and NBER (email: lboustan@princeton.edu); Eriksson: UC Davis and NBER (email: kaeriksson@ ucdavis.edu). Esther Duflo was the coeditor for this article. Thanks to the many seminar and conference audiences, including (in chronological order): NBER Cohort Studies, Economic History Association, Australian National University, All-UC Economic History, UC Merced, UC San Diego, Princeton, New York University, Ohio State, Boston University, Pittsburgh, Columbia, George Washington, Chicago Booth, NBER Development of the American Economy, Maryland, UVA, Rutgers, CUNY, Yale Law School, Parthenope University of Naples, and CSEF Naples. We benefited tremendously from the comments of Eli Berman, Marianne Bertrand, Sandra Black, Hoyt Bleakley, Michael Bordo, Bruno Caprettini, Mario Carillo, Bill Collins, Dora Costa, Janet Currie, James Feigenbaum, James Fenske, Joseph Ferrie, Walker Hanlon, Judy Hellerstein, Rick Hornbeck, Melissa Kearney, Wojciech Kopczuk, Ilyana Kuziemko, John Landon-Lane, David Lagakos, Trevon Logan, Robert Margo, Atif Mian, Suresh Naidu, Giacomo Ponzetto, Nolan Pope, Paul Rhode, Harvey Rosen, Allison Shertzer, Randy Walsh, Owen Zidar, and the late Werner Troesken. James Feigenbaum, Andrew Hall, Connor Huff, Matt Jaremski, Shiro Kuriwaki, and Suresh Naidu generously shared data with us for the project. Myera Rashid and Brian Lee provided excellent research assistance. Philipp Ager gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Danish Research Council grant DFF-8019-00026B.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Economic Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - The nullification of slave wealth after the US Civil War (1861-1865) was one of the largest episodes of wealth compression in history. We document that White Southern households that owned more slaves in 1860 lost substantially more wealth by 1870, relative to Southern households that had been equally wealthy before the war. Yet, their sons almost entirely recovered from this wealth shock by 1900, and their grandsons completely converged by 1940. Marriage networks and connections to other elite families may have aided in recovery, whereas transmission of entrepreneurship and skills appear less central.
AB - The nullification of slave wealth after the US Civil War (1861-1865) was one of the largest episodes of wealth compression in history. We document that White Southern households that owned more slaves in 1860 lost substantially more wealth by 1870, relative to Southern households that had been equally wealthy before the war. Yet, their sons almost entirely recovered from this wealth shock by 1900, and their grandsons completely converged by 1940. Marriage networks and connections to other elite families may have aided in recovery, whereas transmission of entrepreneurship and skills appear less central.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119437369&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85119437369&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1257/AER.20191422
DO - 10.1257/AER.20191422
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85119437369
VL - 111
SP - 3767
EP - 3794
JO - American Economic Review
JF - American Economic Review
SN - 0002-8282
IS - 11
ER -